The blog for news, events, releases and commentary from Castle Perilous Games & Books. located in downtown Carbondale IL. New posts every Monday and Wednesday.

Friday, May 16, 2014

Konami Improves the Sneak Peek, Some

We had pre-releases
for Magic Journey into Nyx and Yu Gi Oh! Primal Order about 2 weeks apart and
once again found WOTC’s handling of their pre-releases far superior to Konami’s,
though, to their credit, Konami did issue some operating changes that made
things a bit easier, but still, WOTC trusts stores to run pre-releases with a
lot less oversight and restrictions than Konami does.

Case in
point, instructions from Konami not to open the Sneak Peeks kits until May 10th.
Given that the Sneak Peek takes place on May 10th and 11th, not
opening the kits makes it rather hard to check and make certain that nothing is
missing from them. Granted, we have never had any problems with items missing
from the kits before this but there is always a first time. Opening the kits
ahead of time allows us to check and contact Konami if needed. An email to
Konami pointing this out did get a response saying it was OK to open the kits
the Thursday before the Sneak Peek.I
understand Konami’s desire to stop Sneak Peek organizers from selling cards
from the set early but WOTC faces the same problem and does not restrict stores
from opening pre-release materials early.

Bowing
to player and store requests, Konami did allow stores to run Sneak Peek
tournaments using Primal Order this time, though such tournaments were
unsanctioned and did not add to a player’s ranking. Here’s hoping next time
Konami allows the sanctioning of Sneak Peek tournaments.

One
final note. I did like the change in the reporting method Konami implemented
for the Sneak Peek, using Survey Monkey to gather the information rather than
asking us to fill out a form and email it back, though Konami does ask for a
lot more information about players, as well as pictures, than WOTC does.
However, sending a link out to the reporting form at 9 p.m. the night before
the Sneak Peek, not a good idea.Way too
last minute. If there was a problem receiving the email, much like with the
instructions on the Sneak Peek kits, it would have been the proverbial mad scramble
to get everything straightened out. No store owner needs or wants to face
something like that the day of a major event like a Sneak Peek.